Ash tray



May 4, 1943.

F. A. JOSEPH ASH TRAY Filed Aug. 26, 1941 ATTORNEY M Patented May 4, 1943 mm STAT ASH TRAY Felix Alexander Joseph, Scarsdale,=N. Y.; now'by judicial change of name Felix-"Joseph Alexander 7 Application Ani a 26, 1341, "s t-a1 No.1 408,341

.5Claims"; The present invention relates to a combination ash tray and cigarette snufli'ng or extinguish-g ing device. This application is acontinuation-inpart of applicants co-pending application; Serial No.'390,459, filed'April 26, 1941, and issued September 1, 1942 as Patent No. 2,294,618.

An ash tray is ordinarilyprovidedwith an ash 4 receptacle to receive-ashes fromburned cigarettes and also with a ledge orrest often in the form ofa shallow groove where a lighted cigarette may be laid temporarily with its-lighted end overhanging. the ash receptacleand its other end projecting outwardly beyond the supporting .sur-

face. If a cigarette is allowed to remain on this temporary support unattended, the lighted endslowly burns away until it reaches a point where x it is lighter thantheprojecting-unlighted end of .the cigarette, whereupon the cigarette is overbalanced'and tips off of the support, fallingionto' thefioor or furniture where it is liable, to start a fire or. to burn and damage the surface on which it falls. "Itgis an object .ofthe present invention to'overcome this danger by providin'g an ash tray 1 having a support where a cigarette may be placed and allowedto' continue burning temporarily and a snufiing or extinguishing-device which will extingu-i'sh the cigarette before it burns a sufficient distance *tooverbalance and tipoff of the I. support. A further-object of theinvention isto provide an ash tray'with an effective snufiing-or extinguishing device without interfering with the ease with'which-a partially burned cigarette can be picked up from the temporary support even when only a short unsmokedend; of the cigarette remainsand to. provide: an ash tray which is neat in appearancaleasily cleaned and free of lateral projections of small cross section which:

areliable to be broken 01f.

i'The'nature andadvantages of will be.-fully=understood from the following de example the accompanying drawin in which ,lijig. is -a perspective view of an1ashfl'tray embodying the inverrtionim v e 2 is a top pla'n viewof the ash tray-shown E 4 1s a sectional view taken on the line 4-1 the invention.

, .ing downwardly from the top surface is'a well I4, which forms a receptacle for cigarette butts 1? and the ashes of burned cigarettes; It will be i seen that the'fiat top surface of the ash tray 5 formsa'suppor't or rest on which a burning 3 cigarette may be temporarilyplaced with its burn- The iiattopped surface not only facilitates molding;

when the ash tray is made of a moldable mateing end overhanging the ash receptacle.

l0 rial'such as glass and provides an attractive reburning cigarettelying on-the supporting surfa ce., With a cigarette supported on a fiat surinserted under the cigarette, whereby it may posed.- i the groove. ,With a shallower groove 2 the cigarette may be picked up with dimcultyby" pinching or grippingit tightly though there is danger of breaking thev cigarette paper; With" the flat supporting surface in accordance withthe present invention on'the other hand, the" 3 cigarette maybe picked 'up"w ith extreme ease,- even though it is so short that itdoes not project beyond the edge of the supporting surface.

While it is desirable to provide an ash tray with a support on which a lighted cigarette may be placed temporarily, it is'undesirableffor the:

cigarettev to continue to burn indefinitelyl-"If the cigarette is balanced on the support with the the other end projecting outwardly beyond the I 40 edge of the supportQthe cigarette will becomeun scription of -the -embodiment shownbyway of:

' port, burning the furniture or floor onto which it falls andlcreating. a serious fire hazard; Moreoverthesmoldering cigarette gives off smoke and fumeswhich may become objectionable and it is therefore desirable to extinguish the'cigarette if left unattended onthe support for a protracted period of time. To overcome these serious ob- 6 jections, there lsfprovided in combination with the ,flat supporting surface aj'ciga-rette' snufling or extinguishingfdevice interposed between. the flat .-surface'and the ash receptacle so that if a cigarette burns back beyond the edge of the ash .receptacle, it will be put-out; As shown-in .fiectingsurface, butalso facilitates picking up a face, the tips. of the thumb and fingers may be easily be-v picked up while if the cigarette were lying in a groove even though the groovebe relatively'fiat or shallow, the thumb and finger tips cannot be slipped under the cigarette to lift it 20 from the support. With the cigarette lying in a I .groovev having ..a. depthjequal to one-half the.

diameter of the cigarette, or more, it is'quite im-' 1 possibleto grip the portion.of the cigarettedislighted end overhanging fthe ash receptacle and do-not grip or the drawing, the extinguishing device consists in a git l5, formed between spaced projections 'or lugs l6, extending upwardly from the flat top surface of the ash tray. The projections 16 are locatedadjacent an edge of the well ll so that the groove l opens at one end 15a over the ash receptacle and opens at the other: end lib onto the flat surface II. The bottom of the groove is preferably curved to conform approximately to the curvature of a cigarette and its lowermost portion is in substantially the same plane as the flat supporting surface l3 so that a cigarette with ash trays intended for standard size cigarettes which are, approximately H of an inch in diameter, the groove may be H of an inch wide and s of an inch deep. The relation be tween the walls of the groove and the surface of a cigarette is shown in the enlarged cross-sectional view of Fig. 5. i

Theability of the groove II to extinguish a lightedcigarette derives froma'number of factors. The combustion of the tobacco in a cigarette is ordinarily not self-sustaining. The paper. wrapper is more combustible, and the heat generated by the burning paper helps keep the tobacco at a temperature above its ignition point.

Itis hence of primary importance to extinguish tin cigarette papenparticularly that portion of the paper at the bottomside' of the cigarette, as the combustion of this portion of the paper being beiow the tobacco, is more effective in keeping the tobacco alight than paper at the sides of or above the tobacco. With the extinguishing device of the present invention, the paper below the tobacco isextinguished byreason of the close contact of the walls of the groove with the bottom half of the cigarette, thereby conducting heat away from the burning end of the cigarette, shutting of! oxygen from the paper and tobacco andv collecting a pocket of carbon dioxide which will not support combustion. Moreover, the moisture resulting from th burning cigarette collects on the relatively cooler surfaces of the grooves, and where these surfaces contact or lie close to the paper, this moisture dampens the paper and further quenches its combustion.

The amount of moisture collected is not enough to run down to the bottom of the groove, and hence moistening of the paper occurs only at the points where there is substantially close contact between the cigarette and the walls of the grooves. It is important for the grooves to fit closely the surface of the cigarette, and yet be sumciently wide so that the sides of thegrooves bind the cigarette so as to hold it up of! the bottom of the groove, leaving an air space for a supply of oxygen below the cigarette and preventing the dampening and quenching of the portions of paper beneath the tobacco.

The groove l5 should'be of suilicient length to insure extinguishing a cigarette even in a draft, a length of approximately V the length of a cigarette being ordinarily suilicient for this purpose. Taking the standard length of a cigarette as 2% to 3%, inches, this means that the grooves should be at least approximately inch long. on the other hand, the grooves should not be long enough to interfere with readily picking a cigarette up from the flat supporting surface ll. The fiat surface or ledge for supporting the cigarette should extend beyond the end of the groove a distance of from to 1 /2 times the length of the groove and preferably not substantially less than the length of the groove. By restricting th length of the groove and providing a fiat supporting surface of substantial extent-in line with the groove to support the cigarette, a partially burned cigarette, even though barely long enough to be smoked, will always excigarette in any way. The depth of the groove 1 tend beyond the end of the groove on to the flat supporting surface where it can easily be picked up by slipping the finger and thumb tips under it. The extinguishing deviceprevents the cigarette from rolling and hence facilitates slipping the tip of the thumb and fingers under it to pick it up from the support without rolling it 01! ofthe flat surface. However, a preferred characteristic of the extinguishing device shown in the drawing, is that it in no way grips or binds the cigarette and therefore does not interfere with picking it up from the flat supporting surface l3. The combined length of the groove and the distance the flat top surface or ledge extends in line with the grooves should be not less than approximately the length of a cigarette in order that a freshly. lighted cigarette placed on Y the support will be extinguished before unbalancing and tipping off. As a cigarette is normally placed with its lighted end projecting at least a short distance over the ash receptacle H, the combined length of the groove and supporting surface may be slightly less for example, the length of a cigarette, but a lower limit of th length of a cigarette is preferable. As

pointed out above, the length of the projections l6 forming the groove I5 is limited to avoid interfering with picking up the lighted cigarette.

- The flat top surface l3 may be extended farther than the minimum necessary to provide an adequate flat supporting surface for the cigarette, but it is generally desirable to restrict the over-all dimensions of the ash tray to prevent its becoming too large and bulky. In the embodiment shown, the grooves and the flat supporting surface extending in line with the grooves are of approximately equal length, each being substantially the length of a cigarette, so that the combined length is about /2 the length of a cigarette.

Whil the ash tray of the present invention may be made of any material, it particularly lends itself to molding and is hence preferably made of glass or other moldable material. It will be appreciated that the novel combination of aflat supporting surface and a cigarette extinguishing device may be embodied'in'a cigarette support for use with an ash receptacle of any desired type with which it may be permanently or detachably united or quite apart from anyash receptacle, for example, as a cigarette support and extinguishing means for outdoor use or elsewhere wher ashes are not objectionable. The ash tray shown in the drawing and described aboveis intended merely as an example and the novel combination of the invention. may be incorporated in'various forms as desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an ash tray the combination of a sub-' stantially flat cigarette supporting surface, a

well forming an ash receptacle, and extinguish-V ing means comprising stationary spaced projections extending upward from said flat surface adjacent an edge of said well and forming between them a groove having a width slightly greater than the diameter of a-cisarette and a depth of from one-half to one diameter of a cigarette, the bottom of said groove conforming ap-- proximately to the curved surface of a cigarette and having its lowermost portion in substantially the plane of said flat surface of the ash tray and forming a continuation of said surface.

2.-In an ashtray, the combination of a substantially flat top surface, a well forming an ash receptacle, and extinguishing means comprising spaced upwardly projecting portions located ad- Jacent said well and forming between them a groove of slightly greater width than a cigarette and having a curved bottom surface merging into the flat surface of the top, the combined length of said groove and extent of the flat surface in alignment therewith being not less than one-half the length of a cigarette.

3. In an ash-tray having an ash receptacle, the combination of a-peripheral wall having a flat top surface portion for supporting a cigarette, and extinguishing means interposed between said supporting surface and the receptacle and comprising a groove adapted to receive a- Y groove locatedbetweeu said flat surface and the inner periphery of said wall and adapted to sup port a cigarette in line contact iwith'said surf and the bottom of said groove..

5. In combination with an ash receptacle, cigarette extinguishing means comprising a groovev slightly wider than but closely fitting a cigarette without binding or gripping the cigarette and a flat cigarette supporting surface in the plane of the bottom of the said groove: of substantially greater width than said groove extending beyond said groove a distance not less than one-half thelength of said groove. the combined length of the groove and supporting surface being not less than approximately one-half the length of acigarette. v

AIEXANDER JOSEPH. 

